Caring
by Keeblo
Summary: He sobs loudly and hiccups. His voice bounces in the quiet area and the wind seems to fight with him to see who can be the loudest. Eventually his voice goes out and his tears run dry and he's left as a snivelling, hiccuping mess while a kid he's only spoken about two words to before consoles him. Bullied!Eridan, slight mentions of self harming tendancies pretty depressing but cute


**Caring**

Author's Note: Okay this will be a little bit on the depressing side, I was actually just writing it as a test for a writing thing I just got. Wow it works great though. I'm not sure if I should leave this how it is as a one type thing or if I should actually do more chapters, you can review or PM me if you have an opinion about it. Slight warning, it is a bullied!Eridan thing and is kind of really depressing actually, so I'm going to rate it M because I feel like it is a little bit more on the 'mature' themed side. So, enjoy.

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Eridan kicks pebbles as he walks down the sidewalk. Today hadn't been good at all. He had figured that by now his magic would have worked on his bullies and they wouldn't have been able to touch him. But that hadn't happened. His eye still throbs and his chest hurts, his bones feel like broken glass and he's not entirely sure how he's walking home but he is.

He grips his jacket around him tighter as he enters his house, sighing and hurrying upstairs, not wanting to be caught. He manages and heaves off everything but his boxers, curling up on his bed and letting a few tears slide down his cheeks and over his nose. After a while he's all cried out and he stands to walk to his bathroom. The damage is pretty bad. His right eye is swollen purple and black, his top lip busted, blood covering his cheeks from where it had run down them and smeared.

His torso isn't any better. His knuckles are painfully red and his ribs are raw. The indentions on his sides, arms and legs are clear as day on his lightened skin. He sighs and turns on the water in his bathtub and allows it to fill, watching as the water rises along the smooth white sides. When it's full he strips his boxers and slowly lowers himself in. His breath catches in his throat as the hot water illicits waves of blissful pain on his wounds and tender skin. His whole body feels like it's throbbing to a wild off beat rhythm but he doesn't mind. It feels good to mask the pain of his injuries and pride with a little self induced pain via hot bath water.

For a while he stays submerged, drifting between sleep and semi awakeness. His fingers drag lightly over every dent, bump, bruise, cut, mark until his skin has gone numb along with his mind. Nearly forty five minutes after getting in he finally drains the tub and gets out. His body throbs again dumbly against the cool air of his bedroom as he walks out and changes into new clothing. It takes him a while to get the courage to stand. He knows his family won't care. They'd probably say he should've been able to beat the other kids up...

He lets out a breath from his nose and walks to his door. On the way back outside he grabs a jacket and pulls it over his frame. He starts walking and doesn't stop. He doesn't stop until he's made it to the old train bridge over the river.

He hisses through his teeth when he sits down, legs on either side of a beam, forehead resting on the cool metal. A breeze stirs leaves past him and into the water below as a momentary distraction.

He isn't sure how long he's been sitting there, his legs long since numb and his forehead sticking to the beam when he sits up fully. But something isn't the same. He yawns, noticing the warmth on his back and the sniffle accompanied by a sort of grunt. Karkat's arms are slung over his shoulders and his head is resting on Eridan's shoulder. When had the short boy sat behind him?

He decides on shaking said boy until he wakes up and gives him a groggy 'what?'

"What are you doin here?" Karkat seems more awake now and has moved his hands to rest around Eridan's stomach.

"I was walking and I saw you. But you were asleep so I came over here to keep you warm...must've fell asleep myself." It's then he notices it's a lot darker out. "What were you upset about?" He stiffens some in Karkat's embrace.

Karkat rubs circles on his stomach and he flinches when the thumb runs over a large bruise. Karkat jumps and stares at him worriedly before lifting up his shirt to look at the marks. Eridan looks down at the water ashamed.

"Hey," Karkat turns Eridan's head towards him, "who did this?" And the concern in his voice is so thick, so _there _and he kind of wants to cry because he _cares _and no one's cared before. When he doesn't speak Karkat slides back and moves him till they're facing each other.

He doesn't think when he does it. Doesn't imagine what the resulting consequences will be when he removes his jacket and shirt, standing and straightening his spine so the marks are visible.

Karkat stands to, mouth open just a bit and cheeks flushed dark, eyebrows knit and jaw clenched. His voice is low and angry when he speaks, "Who did this?" Eridan looks at his feet, hands holding onto his jeans tight enough his knuckles throb.

Karkat steps forward then, touches a few of the injuries including his eye, and hugs him. Hugs him at the waist and hugs him hard. The hot tears roll down Eridan's chest in little trickles and - _oh. _He hugs back, his own tears beginning to fall.

"Eridan, _please, _who did this?" He sniffles and buries his nose into Karkat's curly hair.

"Sollux an his friends..." Karkat's grip on him tightens momentarily before slacking quickly to avoid irritating his wounds.

"Sollux..." Karkat rubs his back and rocks them gently side to side until Eridan has all but begun to sob thickly, chest aching, heart aching, for someone to finally _care_. His legs give out and Karkat follows him shooshing and papping his back. "It's okay, let it out." He sobs loudly and hiccups. His voice bounces in the quiet area and the wind seems to fight with him to see who can be the loudest. Eventually his voice goes out and his tears run dry and he's left as a snivelling, hiccuping mess while a kid he's only spoken about two words to before consoles him.

Karkat fists a hand in the hairs at Eridan's nape, squeezing lightly and rubbing his thumb on the area. "Sh, sh, it's okay, it's okay. I have you, it's okay, sh. It's okay, I won't let you go, sh." And this all but starts up another wave of gross sobbing. He wipes at his tears and shoves his palms into his eyes, wiping at his nose with the backs. Karkat pulls back and pulls his sleeve down, dabbing at Eridan's eyes and nose, not caring about his clothing. And he sees how truly _broken _Eridan looks with red puffy eyes and pink cheeks that contrast so beautifully against the blue of his eyes and the deep purple - black of the bruise covering a third of his face.

Eridan sits on his knees, still hiccuping occasionally as Karkat leans foreward and kisses his cheeks and nose, his forehead to his freckled shoulders and rests his head there, moving a hand to Eridan's hair to have him do the same. And they stay like that enveloped in each other until the stars are the only thing they can see anymore.

Finally Eridan's all cried out and he pulls his shirt and jacket back on because it's getting cold. Karkat stands and offers a hand which he gladly takes. He expects him to let go but he doesn't, he holds on tighter and starts to show him off the bridge.

"Do you want to stay at my house tonight?" And all he can do is nod slowly, tiredly, defeated. Karkat tells him to call home to say where he's at - he nearly protests because they won't care, but Karkat says it's better anyway so no one calls cops - before they're to his car and it's warm and comfortably silent and he's sleeping in the passenger seat with his hand still firmly in Karkat's.

Karkat wakes him up when they arrive at his house. He's nearly sure that someone with a deep voice asks who he is and Karkat replies with a 'later dad' before leading him to a den and making a pile using large blankets in front of the fire in the fireplace. It's a slow, tired comply when he crawls onto the pile and leans with Karkat against the couch. Who is hardly surprised when he passes out only a few moments later.

Sometime later that night Karkat leaves and talks to his father who nods and makes something for them for the next morning while Karkat goes outside and calls Sollux. And it's surprising that Eridan doesn't wake up from the terrible screaming which fades for a while when Karkat leaves in a rush to his friends house to confront him.

Eridan's dreams are silent that night, blissfully. He wakes up though, before Karkat comes back and stares at the low fire. When Karkat does come back he looks exausted and kicks off his shoes clumsily before climbing under the pile of blankets with Eridan. The blue eyed one understands when he doesn't say anything but leans against him. And Eridan grabs his hand under the blanket which they're both thankful for and no more questions are asked that night. And maybe after Karkat had fallen asleep and Eridan sat staring at his face with the lights dancing under his eyes and across his fuller lips, he felt like some part of him had been awoken, had been fufilled and completed.

He presses a soft kiss to Karkat's forehead and curls against his side with the lingering thought: someone _cares_.


End file.
